Overwatch Has Ruined My Life… The Beta Impressions

This last weekend, I was supposed to record a couple of videos for my YouTube channel, prepare for a podcast, clean the apartment, do laundry, write a piece about game review scores, and fully relax before work on Monday morning. As you can probably guess by the title of this post, none of that got done. Instead, I ran around a virtual space pretending to be “The Arrow” and when I got tired of that, I ran around that same virtual space with two pistols and the ability to teleport and cause havoc that I can only describe as really fun. That’s right, Overwatch is really fun. And that is weird for me to say because going into the game, I thought it was going to suck. In fact, I thought it was going to be another Battleborn. It’s not. I thought it was going to be a MOBA-like experience. It’s not. Overwatch is not a game trying to capitalize off of the e-sports fad. Overwatch isn’t Call of Duty (no hate, because I love CoD).

Overwatch is a first person shooter that honestly puts fun first. It’s very much team based, meaning that it differs from a game like Call of Duty because you have to play roles on your team and if those roles aren’t fulfilled, you are at a disadvantage. Matches are objective based and completing these objectives are the only way to win. The concept of the game is simple and easy to comprehend. This doesn’t make the game simple. The real meat of the game is the diverse characters. Each of the many characters have unique abilities that can support their team in one way or another. From teleportation, to healing, to super-speed, and many more, the characters each feel like they contribute something meaningful and there’s one for just about every play style. Outside of just their abilities, the characters in Overwatch are also very well designed. These characters feel like they were designed by that very creative kid that went to your high school. You know, that kid who drew anime characters in his notebook. These characters are bright, colorful, unique, and most of all stylish. They each have personality which is not something that is said about many multiplayer shooters. These characters have a lot more to them then a lot of playable characters in story driven single-player games. The whole presentation in Overwatch follows this, but the characters are what shine the most.

As of the time I am writing this, the beta ends tomorrow. I have no idea what I’m going to do when this game is gone. This feels crazy to say because before four days ago, I didn’t have any bone in my body that would even think I would come anywhere close to buying this game. But now, I can’t wait for these next couple of weeks to pass by so I can hit up Best Buy and pick up my next game purchase. In a generation of games where I feel like I have given up on competitive multiplayer shooters, Overwatch has changed that sentiment for me in a way that only a game this special can.

This piece was written by Blessing Adeoye. You can find Blessing on the internet either getting into dance battles or analyzing game culture for the purpose of making the world a better place at @blessingjr on the Twittersphere.